


Negotiation

by Viridian5



Series: Coming to Terms [2]
Category: Andromeda
Genre: Humor, M/M, Plot What Plot, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-06-22
Updated: 2001-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 09:37:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dylan and Harper help each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Negotiation

**Author's Note:**

> The can scenes had Gravity Kills' _Perversion_ as my soundtrack.

Dylan didn't trust that the Hagiots really intended to keep their word until the Maru left the planet's atmosphere unmolested. The Hagiots didn't have the weaponry necessary to shoot them down now.

Beka, who'd kept her curiosity under wraps at his directive until they were out of danger, finally asked, "Okay, spill. How did you get them to let you go?"

Harper, who'd kept his hands over his lap during their ascent, stood. "I have to take care of something. I'm sure Dylan can explain it all." He left so quickly that Dylan didn't have the time to even attempt a protest.

Leaving Dylan, who suffered in a similarly uncomfortable state, to answer to Beka alone.

"So?" Beka asked Dylan.

"Harper used something he claims the two of you did as a distraction once. Does mentioning Rio Rojo Station give you any clues? Because if it doesn't, I'll have to kill him slowly."

Dylan watched realization ripple through her face, and he could swear he saw the barest trace of a blush. Her smile deepened and took on a smug edge. "Yeah, it means something. So, did you--" She made a variety of hand gestures that Dylan chose to misunderstand.

"Suck his thumb? Pull his finger?" Talking about this wasn't helping his condition. He would _not_ adjust himself in front of Beka.

"Funny guy. You know what I mean. Did you--"

Thinking about it, Dylan decided that he didn't want her to spell it out for him after all. "No. They decided they saw enough before we finished."

"Poor babies. No wonder Harper hightailed it out of here so fast."

"Speaking of which, do you need me for anything else right now? If not--"

"I can handle the piloting just fine alone. Hey, is there any chance you can tape it? I have some equipment." She laughed at the look on his face.

"What?"

"Your innate sense of justice is not going to let you let Harper get himself off when he'd pounced you and left you... unfinished. You're about to track him down. What I'm asking is if you could make a vid record of what follows, that's all."

"Beka."

"I was kidding. Mostly. Go. You're fidgeting as much as Harper."

"I'm not--"

"Go."

He sighed. "Who's the captain here?"

"Both of us, but right now I'm the one who's using the right head. Get. He could be finished by now, and that's really unfair to you."

"Only if you stop smirking."

"I will. At least until you leave the room."

They'd infected him with their gleeful insanity. He couldn't explain it any other way. But he was going along with it, so.... He left with as much dignity as he could, his dignity being something else that faced constant assault from his new crew, and walked straight to the closed and locked door of what they called "the can." It was nearly small enough to qualify. They had another one down the corridor, but since this one was closer and had a locked door, Dylan felt he could be confident of where Harper was.

Dylan knocked. "Harper!"

"Kind of busy at the moment!" Harper breathlessly shouted back.

"I'm here to help."

"Sure, you are."

"Really."

The door slid open a crack, and one pale green eye showed through to give him a thoroughly incredulous look. "You're having me on."

"If you open the door."

Harper laughed. "Then Beka comes in behind you with a camera and a Gotcha."

"Now you're shy and retiring?"

"You didn't figure that out until now? I don't know where people get these ideas about me." Harper's gaze strayed to below Dylan's belt. "C'mon in, then. Welcome to my office." Harper had to move aside to let Dylan in, which gave Dylan the opportunity to see that Harper had tucked himself back in and refastened his pants.

Like most of the Eureka Maru, the can had a dark, utilitarian, patched-together look, but it had the further dubious charm of being a tiny, enclosed space, with room enough only for the toilet tank and two standing people even with the sink folded up into the wall above the toilet. Dylan had to shift to the side to move one of the many handholds on the wall away from his spine.

His crew truly did come from a different world.

Yet at times they still preferred to be on the Maru instead of the Andromeda Ascendant.

Aside from the red of the thin rim of doorframe, the vivid blue of Harper's top shirt, brown of his tool belt, and blond of his hair made the only small breaks from all the black and tarnished gun metal gray under the dim light. Weirdly enough, Dylan's uniform made him blend in like a chameleon.

Harper smacked the toilet lid down, snapped the locks on, and sat, looking up at Dylan with an indecipherable smile. Harper's eyes slowly swept over Dylan with an approval and growing heat in them that intensified his unsatisfied ache and dull throb of arousal into something far more insistent. He never thought he'd be the one more desperate to get on with it.

His smile deepening, Harper finally stood, which put him into Dylan's space by default. "Help me?" Harper asked, softly.

Dylan only had to lean forward and tilt their heads a bit to kiss Harper. In seconds they'd wrapped around one another, kissing frantically, hands roaming everywhere, their vehemence knocking them into the walls. Dylan could feel Harper's hard cock rubbing against his leg along with various tools pressing painfully into him in other places, but at this point any discomfort just translated into something erotic.

"We have to get--" Harper breathed along Dylan's jaw.

"Yeah." Dylan never thought he would just go for a member of his crew like this, but Harper had already shown him that he had an exhibitionist streak he'd never noticed before as well as enough of a twisted mind to get off on the idea of his sibling-like first officer and engineer getting together. It had been a day for firsts.

It might help that he'd been desperate for relief for hours now, having had to wait until the Hagiots let them go and they cleared the city and they reached the Maru and they left the atmosphere and....

They moved away from one another enough to start taking one another's belts off. Harper's usually steady fingers fumbled on Dylan's holsters, skidding along his crotch and thighs, which did no good for the state of his mind or cock. He knew his own attempts to get Harper's belt and holster off seemed more like fondling and spine-stroking than an actual removal effort, though he managed to get Harper's pants open somehow. Harper laughed during and between kisses, then gave a small shout of triumph as he attained his goal, which he followed up by unfastening Dylan's pants.

Harper smoothly sank to his knees and sucked at the head of Dylan's cock, using handholds on Dylan's hipbones to keep him in place. Dylan almost came then but held himself back by pure force of will. Not yet. He couldn't control his moaning, though. Especially not when Harper took him in deeper and started to talk around the length of his cock. It took everything he had not to pull too hard at the fine blond hair he'd tangled his fingers in, not to force Harper in closer....

Harper let go of one of his hipbones and.... "No!" Dylan said. "Let me take care of you."

Harper looked up at him from under his lashes and quirked an eyebrow. Dylan refused to look any further down his face, to see his cock between Harper's lips. He would lose it. But then, in the absence of any response from Dylan, Harper made an inquiring sound that hummed along the shaft and ended it all anyway. Dylan came hard, feeling it go all the way through his spine, all control gone, so he figured he might as well see. Watching himself fuck Harper's mouth made it even harder to control his thrusts, but Harper's tightening grip on his hips helped. Only that grip kept him from sliding down the wall.

Harper suckled his cock until it softened totally, finally letting it go with one last loving stroke of his tongue, wringing an unwilling whimper from Dylan. He rested his head against Dylan's stomach for a bit, a weirdly touching gesture.

It made Dylan feel even worse about losing it like that and being so rough. "I'm sorry," he gasped.

Harper sat back on his heels, licked his lips, and gave Dylan a wry look. "I was bringing my hand down to hold myself back, not stroke myself off."

Without Harper holding him up, he slid the rest of the way to the floor. His legs bracketed Harper; the toes of his boots pressed into the wall facing him even with his knees bent. "Oh."

Harper idly stroked Dylan's knees. "Now you'll never know what else I was going to do. Never ever."

"Harper."

"You promised to help me. I wanted to hold you to it. Then you promised to take care of me too. I always wanted to hear that from some director on a corporate or FTA board, but no, I get a High Guard captain."

"I'm not in the market for a kept boy." No matter how great he felt right now or how much he liked Harper. More than that, he wasn't in the market _because_ he liked Harper. But-- "Wait a minute, I already subsidize you."

"What? Oh, c'mon. The whole point of being a kept boy is not working or putting my life in danger. I work my ass off for you, and not in that easy 'staying pretty and available' way."

"You'd get bored. You'd start rearranging your host's security system and inciting the staff to riot."

Harper smiled, but he looked a bit twitchy under his cool. "Maybe."

Dylan felt mellow and playful, his bones nicely melted. "You're chaos personified."

"That's a big responsibility for just one guy.... So, are you gonna help me or not? My balls are so blue they're purple."

"That makes no sense." But he felt bad for Harper, who hadn't gotten off yet....

"Sure it does."

"Get up on the seat."

"Hunh?"

"We don't have room down here, and I don't think you want to take this out to the bunks."

"Not unless I want Beka shouting tips back to us. No thanks." Harper levered himself up onto the seat.

Figuring that it made no sense to stand up and move, Dylan crawled over to kneel between Harper's legs and folded his arms on Harper's thighs. "Fuck, that's hot," Harper said. "I want to see how many other reasons I can come up with to make you crawl."

"Not many. Better enjoy it while it lasts."

"You know, she's probably listening to us anyway."

It looked like that exhibitionism hadn't been a one-time thing. "No privacy here?" Dylan watched Harper's erect, dripping cock. Just within reach. But he wanted Harper to notice him noticing first.

He appreciated the chance to tease and play almost more than he had the sex.

"None. As we speak, she's probably grading my performance based on the moaning and whimpering she heard."

"You like that?"

Had him now. Harper licked his lips and started to breathe a bit faster as he noticed what Dylan was staring at. "It just _is_, you know?"

Dylan finally unfastened Harper's belt, then stroked Harper's bared stomach. "Mmm-hmm."

Harper twitched, and Dylan could feel his pulse pounding under the skin beneath his hands. "Uhm. Dylan, would you give it to me already? Help, remember?"

He had promised to help Harper, and Harper had helped him spectacularly first instead. It was only fair, and he wanted to make Harper feel good. Dylan sucked on the fingers of one hand, smiling at the rapt attention he received. When Dylan opened his mouth and slid down the hot length of Harper's cock, Harper grabbed for his shoulders and almost fell off the seat. Muttering, "Oh fuck, fuck...." Harper grabbed the handholds on the wall on each side of him to keep himself up. "Wanted to touch you...."

Dylan had his mouth full, so he didn't say anything about there perhaps being another time for that. Instead he snaked his hand back and slid it down Harper's ass under the baggy pants, which inspired a throaty sound that mixed pleasure and surprise. Harper wrapped his legs around Dylan, and his knuckles went white as he tightened his grip on the handholds.

"Don't know about my staying power here. Damn. Damn. You used that mouth to command the fleet? What a waste. What a career you could have had. We could go into business together...." Amused at the stream of words, Dylan smirked and let the barest edge of his teeth scrape along Harper's cock, making him jump and groan. "Not... not like I'd be your pimp or anything. Though pimping Harper makes an interesting image, especially with all the velvet and the wide-brimmed hat. Oh. Fuck. Oh. Damn, this isn't as much fun when you can't talk back, not that I don't want you to continue what you're doing."

When Dylan sucked harder and started stroking deeper with his hand, Harper hit his head back against the wall. "I could die like this," he moaned, his eyes closed, throat arched and bared, his head resting back against the wall. "Can you make me come before you kill me?"

The sight of Harper like this didn't quite get Dylan ready to go again--he was 342, after all--but watching all that helpless, tormented pleasure he was responsible for did make him half-hard.

Harper had talked around _his_ cock, so Dylan answered, "Say please."

Harper said _something_ when he came, but Dylan didn't think even Harper knew what it was. Harper's whole body arched, and his legs tightened around Dylan, his feet kicking at his back. Dylan took the wild thrusts into his mouth as justice. Besides, he'd teased the hell out of Harper in his own way.

When Harper finally calmed down and went slack, breathing hard, Dylan let Harper's cock slide from his lips. He kept his hand where it was, though, and remained draped on Harper.

"You can let go now," Dylan said. He sounded a little too smug even to himself.

"Can't," Harper gasped, a big grin on his face. "I'll hit the floor. Hey, be _my_ kept boy?"

"You couldn't afford me."

"And whose fault is that?"

"I'm going to pay you to keep me?"

"Works for me."

"Because you're insane."

"Don't knock insanity. Sometimes you need it to get things done." Harper squirmed and made a small sound. "Could you, uhm, remove your fingers, guy?"

"Sorry." As he did so, Harper made a few interesting noises that Dylan thought he might be able to torment him about later. Just because Dylan enjoyed having smart, challenging people on his crew didn't mean he wouldn't challenge them right back. Giving back as good as he got was part of the pleasure.

Beka's voice over the comm said, "ETA ten minutes. Wanted you to know in case you had another act planned for your floorshow. You may have been too much of a miser to record it for me, but the noises gave my imagination a _lot_ to work with."

Looking smug, Harper pressed the comm button and said, "I needed to use the handholds, Beka."

Could that sound be a whimper? "The handholds?"

"Mmm-hmm. It was definitely 'white-knuckled grip, hold on for your life' time."

"Okay, your imagination whips my imagination's ass, you bastards. Oh, Dylan, if the whole High Guard warship thing doesn't work out for you, you have an official place on the Maru's crew. Beka out."

Once Harper turned off the comm, Dylan asked, "Okay, what did that last part mean?"

"She either made you official based on knowing that you're willing to put out or that you were willing to do this in the can. Beats me which."

Dylan could be horrified but chose not to be. "I'm a firm believer in the value of bonding with my crew."

Harper snorted, then said, "You know, if you feel like bonding again any time in the future, I'll schedule you in." He didn't sound quite as cool as he tried to, and one of his feet slid ceaselessly up and down Dylan's back.

Dylan looked at Harper and felt quite content with the boneless and effortlessly affectionate way Harper was still wrapped around him. "I'd like that."

Harper grinned. "You were a big help. A huge help. Really."

 

### End


End file.
